Week 15

wish u were queer

#play #queerness #identity

A game about symmetry, identity and the fluidity of gender and sexual orientation.

This project was prototyped as part of my MFA Experimental Play project group class. It was presented as a single screen game about a belief, and was prototyped using Derivative TouchDesigner. The interface was based off of Indae Hwang's Drag_Drop collage example.

During class critique, I received some interesting questions about the use of symmetry, existing symbol formations and the ability to create new gender and sexual relationships. I had initially thought to include very bare bone symbols:

Screenshot from the TouchDesigner patch.

However, I wanted it to be intentional about including queer or otherwise obscure symbols that challenge notions of heteronormativity, and gender binaries. I eventually landed on the following symbols:

I chose to make the game symmetrical in order to highlight the these symbols are not alone, and instead part of a larger web. As someone else put it: each reflection and rotation represents a slightly different formation, yet they are all part of a cohesive whole.

Below is a quickly play through of the first iteration of { wish u were queer }: